2006 - October
Yours In Training
 |
July 2006 |
Freecall 1800 2 TRAIN (1800 2 87246) www.mrwed.com.au |
In This Issue
Training News: ACPET signs cooperation agreement with South Africa
MRWED News: 2007 Timetable Release
Training Tip: PDA and Powerpoint
Website of the Month: www.easytestmaker.com
Training Game: The Buzz Group
Training Case Study: IKEA simulations, stimulate understanding
Also...
Training News: ACPET signs cooperation agreement with South Africa
In August at the Australian Council of Private Education and Training (ACPET) National Conference held in Cairns, the National Chair, Julie Moss signed an agreement on behalf of ACPET members with the Chair of the Association of Private Providers of Education, Training and Development (APPETD), South Africa, Ms Rooksana Rajab.
The agreement is a first for both peak bodies and sets a framework for cooperative agreement between the two bodies and between Australian and South African private providers.
In the agreement, both parties agree to:
- Strengthen long-term friendly and cooperative relationships and to develop a healthy, stable partnership
- Exchange information and share perspectives to gain a greater understanding of education and training in both countries
- Actively participate in each party’s respective annual conferences, providing a keynote speaker as requested and a mutual and equal number of complementary conference registrations
- Encourage the development of strategic partnerships between member organisations for the two-way exchange of education and training
The cooperation in the above-mentioned and related initiatives will assist organisations belonging to both parties to identify business opportunities and strengthen bilateral trade.
This agreement is a big step forward in the ACPET plan to foster relationships with similar international bodies. For more information about APPETD go to www.appetd.org.za.
MRWED News: 2007 Timetable Release
The MRWED timetable with course dates through to the end of June 2007 is now available. In upcoming months MRWED will be offering course participants more choices of start dates for Certificate IV in Training and Assessment courses in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide and Newcastle. Click here to see upcoming dates in your city.
MRWED turned six in September! Since our first course in 2000, we have now supported over 7500 students in trainer training and run more than 500 Cert IV courses. We would like to thank all our students and corporate clients for their continued support.
Training Tip: PDA and Powerpoint
This month’s training tip is Part two from last edition, with a little help from Graham from Thermodyne Technologies. In the last edition we discussed how you could use a split screen on your Laptop to see your speaker notes while using powerpoint. Graham let us know about a method of using your Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) in the same way. Here is what Graham had to say…
“On the PowerPoint issue, you might be interested to know about Periscope, which displays speaker notes on your PDA while controlling the PowerPoint presentation on your PC. The PDA and PC communicate via BlueTooth." If you are interested please visit www.pocketpccreations.com/periscope/default.htm”
So break out your Blackberrys, Imates and similar and enjoy the synchronicity… Thanks Graham.
For those of you looking for non-technology based training tips, I promise to highlight something for you in the next edition.
Website of the Month: www.easytestmaker.com
As its name suggests, this site gives you an easy way to make tests. You create them all online and can choose from True/False, Multiple Choice, Short Answer, Fill in the blanks and others. Whilst it is created online, it is possible to convert the tests into Microsoft Word files and save them for later use or you can print them directly from the website.
This is a free service, but the site requires you to register (at not cost) and choose a username and password. This takes about 1 minute. All in all, this site provides a quick way to create a multi-format assessment tool or revision quiz. www.easytestmaker.com
Training Game: The Buzz Group
For our recent TAA students, they will be familiar with “The Buzz Group” activity from the Learning Environment section. However, it can be modified for any subject area. Basically, you provide the candidates with a list of suggested topics to discuss, selected from the subject matter for the day. In groups ask them to select one of the topics for their exclusive discussion. Each group will then work with their selected topic for about 20-25 minutes and come up with a summary response to present back to the rest of the class. This response could be done on butcher’s paper, as a powerpoint presentation or in some other creative way.
The Buzz Group promotes interactivity, helps to reinforce information and engages the group as it gives them ownership over the material. Further to this, it changes the focus from the trainer to the student and in turn, the diversity of vocal and presentation styles makes for a more interesting session. It works well after a break, as it gets the group focused, but in a relaxing and fun way. Hopefully, it will give your session the buzz you have been looking for!
Training Case Study: IKEA Simulations Stimulate Understanding
Applying classroom learning to the everyday business world is a training tenet at which the IKEA “Way III” training program most definitely excels.
The goal of the three-and-a-half-day store-based program, which is designed for the company’s managers and leaders, is to help participants understand local and global business relationships, the movement of goods from supplier to customer and what makes IKEA unique. This information is then directly tied to processes within IKEA through an array of hands-on, skill-building exercises.
To achieve the company’s goals for the program, IKEA Way III utilises actual IKEA product and pricing information in real-life exercises to demonstrate how products are developed, sourced, priced and adapted to changing customer needs.
A board game, for example, allows teams of participants to see the impact of their actions in a store on any given day. As in any store environment, IKEA U.S. Learning and Development Facilitator Lynne Marshall says, “one never has enough resources to handle everything that is thrown at them during the day. Thus, setting priorities and using resources wisely gives the winning team the edge in sales figures for that day”.
So what's the payoff? According to Marshall, participants who go through the program are better prepared to take on additional responsibilities due to their increased knowledge base and have a greater understanding of the roles that others play in the organisation. In addition to this, they can see how they impact other people and other areas of the company and vice versa. Finally, they are able to incorporate information into existing programs and can better mentor and train new managers in new locations.
Well done IKEA – if only they could come up with a training program that helps me to put their products together!
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Happy training!
Marc Ratcliffe
Principal – MRWED
